Some videos out there on how to fund carriers easy. Trick is to find the 50Million Credit missions, once you have unlocked all the factions at a station they randomly appear and then it is just running those.
Mini-Carriers for solo players
- Thread starter Qohen Leth
- Start date
I find the fleet carrier offer two primary benefits:
1. Storing a bunch of ships and moving them around together.
2. Storage of items and commodities.
Item 1 is very non-essential, especially for newer players, or players that don't have much 'stuff' or very casual play.
Item 2 has been very important, particularly during the Thargoid War when collecting stuff for modules was necessary. Even still, where can you safely place specialty items that you don't want to lose? Fleet carrier is the only current answer. My fleet carrier has a bunch of 'stuff' I really would not like to lose.
Providing players with some form of safe storage would be good. Even if it is just the simple purchase of a single 64t storage locker at a designated home base.
1. Storing a bunch of ships and moving them around together.
2. Storage of items and commodities.
Item 1 is very non-essential, especially for newer players, or players that don't have much 'stuff' or very casual play.
Item 2 has been very important, particularly during the Thargoid War when collecting stuff for modules was necessary. Even still, where can you safely place specialty items that you don't want to lose? Fleet carrier is the only current answer. My fleet carrier has a bunch of 'stuff' I really would not like to lose.
Providing players with some form of safe storage would be good. Even if it is just the simple purchase of a single 64t storage locker at a designated home base.
They were designed for squadron use, i.e a group, and it shows. We will probably never know why Fdev decided to make them "personal", but I think it's because they couldn't figure out how a squadron as a whole would controll it. So here we are, almost 5 years later, stuck with a "personal" fleet carrier that was suppose to be used by a group of players, and a development team who can't even be bothered with doing the smallest of adjustments to correct that.
It's a bit sad someone would be so indoctrinated in how poorly fleet carriers functionality is designed that they can't even imagine something that is actually thought out.
"I need 25k tones of cargo space to haul all the fuel because having to mine thousands of tones of tritium when I'm out in the black is horrible."
"You know, maybe we can make a smaller carrier that doesn't use anywhere near as much fuel. Then you can do a little bit of mining here and there, and making it feel like you really have to take care of your little mobile base. How does that sound?"
"No, I need the a big carrier so it can hold all the fuel I need."
"..."
If this mini-carrier was introduced such that players could have one in-addition to a full carrier, sure lots of cmdrs would get it just to have another carrier. Sure, absolutely it would be popular. It would multiply the amount of fleet carriers over night.
But,
If a player can have only one carrier at a time, then I really don't see the value of it being introduced. It would be much too niche use. It would be like introducing a Hauler MkII with SCO tuning. Why bother?
I did not say I was against a fleet carrier with different characteristics to the existing ones or that a mini FC was not possible. I did not say that people would not want such a FC. I just stated that if you want FDev to come up with something that does not completely negate the need of the existing FC then you will have to expect some limitations in the new FC.
For example, they may come up with something that is half the capacity, but with a limited ship capacity, an extended jump range (but not double).
Such FCs may have a use, but it won't satisfy those that want to use a FC for holding their haul of materials or for explorers that want to hold vast amounts of tritium to extend the range of the FC whilst out in the black.
Instead the smaller FC would be more useful for those with smaller fleets that wanted more efficient tritium use. I'm not sure what use that would be, but I'm convinced that others can come up with a scenario where that is useful to them. What you won't get is something that holds the same capacity as the current FC (or better), jumps further than the current FC and is orders of magnitude more efficient than the current FC.
So to be a viable alternative, you need to state what you want improving and what you are prepared to lose as a compromise.
I don't think they were designed for squadron, but that they had squadron capabilities. The FC is bought and owned by an individual. It is up to them whether they let other players use them and then whether they restrict the usage to themselves, their squadron, non-notorious individuals or anyone. A squadron never controls the carrier, only an individual. There is no voting system, no mechanism for a group of players to combine to purchase a carrier. The only way that a squadron can influence the individual controlling the carrier is to ask them nicely. There is no inbuilt mechanism.
For example if the owner of a squadron restricted FC leaves a squadron and joins another then the previous squadron loses access to the carrier.
So, they designed a carrier to be used by a squadron (whose membership can increase and decrease) and not be owed by an entity that can change in size. Imagine if you were a member of a squadron who owned a carrier and you left, would you need to sell your share? Or you wanted to join a squadron who owned a FC, would you need to buy your way in? Would the existing members get a monetary payment, but lose the percentage of ownership. If so who would control who could join the squadron?
Not so much developers that can't be bothered, but players with wishes, who have not thought properly about the consequences of the changes that they want.
I have long argued - in the linked manifesto - that we need a new type of carrier, smaller, less cargo and pads, sips at the tritium, perfect for exploration and taking along a few ships...
A fleet carrier is only 5 billion or so, may be wise to have 7 billion, but one expedition into the black will net you that thanks to Exo biology.
This game is getting too easy, what next, a fleet carrier for ARX, ARX for Engineer access ?
I think the current carrier models are fine. The management of them could be tweaked. The fact a solo player can do business with all instances without ever facing another player is crazy. I did this myself for a long time, gathering all the sellable data and materials and putting everything at max prices at the bar. I made hundreds of billions doing that, yet never saw another player in the process. I am cool with having a carrier in solo, but it feels a bit like an exploit to do business in open without actually being there. I can also do business without even being in the game, because as already stated ITT, the carrier is a station, plain and simple. Otherwise there's zero reason to have system security around a privately owned carrier that no faction in the system has any stake in.
This has been the primary function of my FC in fact until very recently the only function though the moving around bit is exploration.
I started to store stuff on my FC at the end of the Thargoid war but I could probably store it all in a T9.
Storage has become important since colonisation arrived but before then it wasn’t essential.
I returned to playing last week (since 2019), and I've been thinking about whether I want a Fleet Carrier. At first I thought the idea sounded cool, then I looked at how long it'd realistically take me to get one. Not easy, but if I do decide to keep playing throughout the year I could end up with one.
But what I realised is I don't want one, because it just doesn't fit the character I'm playing. Neither does colonising entire star systems. Some players might be roleplaying an interstellar tycoon, but that's really not what I'm doing. I don't imagine my character on the bridge of a fleet carrier with security buzzing about: I imagine him stashing some stolen cargo and a hot ship in a secret little hideout in a hollowed out asteroid.
Frontier skipped right ahead to the epic content, and it's a shame. More modest base building, and more modest carriers, would be accessible to more players (both pragmatically and roleplay-wise), and those assets would then be really useful in missions.
But what I realised is I don't want one, because it just doesn't fit the character I'm playing. Neither does colonising entire star systems. Some players might be roleplaying an interstellar tycoon, but that's really not what I'm doing. I don't imagine my character on the bridge of a fleet carrier with security buzzing about: I imagine him stashing some stolen cargo and a hot ship in a secret little hideout in a hollowed out asteroid.
Frontier skipped right ahead to the epic content, and it's a shame. More modest base building, and more modest carriers, would be accessible to more players (both pragmatically and roleplay-wise), and those assets would then be really useful in missions.
I have played the game since either Alpha or Beta, cannot remember exactly which it's been that long 
Only this week did I finally get a fleet carrier, because I have never really done any of the "Get rich now" things like the Void Opal's etc, but I built up 5.3 Billion credits by trading, combat, exploring and helping people recently with System Colonisation.
After buying my Fleet carrier I was left with just 170 million credits, after sticking 200 million on my carrier to cover the upkeep, the carrier will pretty much be only used by me for trading and storing my ships, occasionally when I decide to go exploring and when my dad needs help and his 2 carriers are not enough (he like many has more than 1 account).
So far I am enjoying the fleet carrier, it is making building an Asteroid Base, stupidly easy as I have the full 25K tons of storage available on the carrier, I am now more than ever looking forward to the next "Cargo CG".
I don't think there is a need for a "Mini-Carrier" and to be honest I don't think the game could cope, since the game is struggling already with the number of carriers in the game, never mind if the Panther Clipper ever came along
Only this week did I finally get a fleet carrier, because I have never really done any of the "Get rich now" things like the Void Opal's etc, but I built up 5.3 Billion credits by trading, combat, exploring and helping people recently with System Colonisation.
After buying my Fleet carrier I was left with just 170 million credits, after sticking 200 million on my carrier to cover the upkeep, the carrier will pretty much be only used by me for trading and storing my ships, occasionally when I decide to go exploring and when my dad needs help and his 2 carriers are not enough (he like many has more than 1 account).
So far I am enjoying the fleet carrier, it is making building an Asteroid Base, stupidly easy as I have the full 25K tons of storage available on the carrier, I am now more than ever looking forward to the next "Cargo CG".
I don't think there is a need for a "Mini-Carrier" and to be honest I don't think the game could cope, since the game is struggling already with the number of carriers in the game, never mind if the Panther Clipper ever came along
It was never about "Fleet Carriers are bad" or a "need for mini-carriers", it's only about having options that make a little more sense. As open-sandbox as it is, Elite is a very rigid game. It's very much either this or that. I welcome all possibilities of more flexibility.
Just like ships. We could have just 3 smalls, 3 mediums and 3 large - one each for the roles of trader, fighter and explorer - but we obviously have much more than that because of choice.
So why not carriers?
The point of a small "base" carrier is just that - for players who are getting going and nowhere near end game, but have multple ships and want some storage space, a mini carrier would be ideal.
When I first got my 2nd ship it was confusing what to do with it, as it had to be moved around to be where I was, and often that meant I coulnd't use it until it had arrived. That's a game design loop. I get why its there - pretty obvious why - btu in terms of game, its crap. I want to play when I want, not have to go and do something else while my ship arrives. (and don't get me started on the cargo insta-moves to the ship you're currently using, grrrrr).
So a small carrier solves these problems, it shouldn't do much else, its there for the player convenience. The game as it stands tries very hard to say "no" to you all the time, a mini carrier is a way of changing that to, "of course, we added this so you could enjoy playing more".
When I first got my 2nd ship it was confusing what to do with it, as it had to be moved around to be where I was, and often that meant I coulnd't use it until it had arrived. That's a game design loop. I get why its there - pretty obvious why - btu in terms of game, its crap. I want to play when I want, not have to go and do something else while my ship arrives. (and don't get me started on the cargo insta-moves to the ship you're currently using, grrrrr).
So a small carrier solves these problems, it shouldn't do much else, its there for the player convenience. The game as it stands tries very hard to say "no" to you all the time, a mini carrier is a way of changing that to, "of course, we added this so you could enjoy playing more".
I think everyone here insisting carriers be group content isn't considering how a group would even fund them. There isn't even ingame infrastructure to allow a single group to pour funds into one entity. Like, would they just all buy resources from it at a super high price from a single person they just really really trust not to take the carrier and run off? Or does one guy do all the grinding for the upkeep solo anyway?